my ohio family

On our way back from our southern excursion, we stopped in Dayton to pick mom up and bring her to Michigan for a few days. When I got there, I had a couple nice surprise visits from my two siblings and their family.

As soon as we arrived, this little cutie came running and jumped right into my arms and yelled, "Hi Aunt T!" When I asked her if I could take her picture - she sat down in the chair for me. She is just a little ball of energy darting here and there.

My baby brother Sam doesn't look so baby with his mass of gray hair in his massive beard. But .... I got him to pose for me, so I'm happy. I was 18 when he was born.

He's a good dad. An Eagle scout, he also did a tour of duty in Iraq and is now a part-time park ranger hoping to get full time.

You can tell they love each other.

Then my baby sister, Tiffany showed up.  These two are the youngest of my mother's children. They share the same father. Of course, while they were together, he punched her in the nose and drew blood. Yep ...

Tiffany married this handsome guy, Nick. Nick was starting a new job after the weekend. They both work real hard for their family. Nick did two tours of duty in Iraq .... or maybe 1 in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan. Is that bad that I don't know? It's bad, isn't it? Tiffy sure is pretty....

And these are the young'ems. That Natalie, Nathaniel, and Noah (from left to right). All getting so big. Noah brought a whole pocket full of hot wheel cars. Goodness time flies.

Here's another picture. I need to do a better job of watching for shadows in my pictures.

I grabbed the tripod out of my vehicle and set up the timer so we could all get into the picture. Everyone's smiling pretty except for mother ..... who's flapping her lips.

This one turned out pretty good after Tiffany yelled at mom. :)